Texas man who ate his own eye could still face execution despite mental illness

A US federal appeal court has said it won’t consider whether a Texas inmate who removed his only eye and ate it in an outburst several years ago is too mentally ill to be executed, but will consider other questions in an appeal of his conviction for killing his estranged wife’s 13-month-old daughter.

Lawyers for Andrew Thomas, 35, argued that executing him while he is severely mentally ill was unconstitutional, but that issue is “foreclosed”, a 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals panel said in a brief ruling on Thursday.